Prophets

Prophets are God's emergency men for crisis hours.Leonard Ravenhill

The prophet is God’s detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him. He has no price tags. He is totally “otherworldly.”He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile. He marches to another drummer! He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration. He is a “seer” who comes to lead the blind. He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a “thus saith the Lord.” He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of impending judgment. TRUE PROPHETSBy LEONARD RAVENHILL

There are two great words that I guard with a fierce jealousy, namely, prophetic and apostolic. The church is”...built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets...(Eph. 2:20b)”, and if those two words are ruined, cheapened, made merchandise of, lose their meaning or are made to stand for something that God did not intend, then we have lost our foundation. If there is something flaky about our apostles and prophets, then what will the superstructure be if it is based on that foundation? The superstructure cannot exceed the foundation, and therefore the foundation deserves the most exceeding attention. This has been my long-standing passion and jealousy, and in a certain sense, a kind of a watchdog over these words, that they should not be used indiscriminately nor lightly, which in fact is exactly what is happening today.Even if we cannot articulate or explain them, we need to intuit what they represent and the importance of what they represent, or we will indeed lose them. I would go further to say that the greatest threat of our contemporary, charismatic and evangelical Christianity is the cheap and light allusions to, and use of, these words. We throw them about with great carelessness and there are ministers taking for themselves their title, or allowing themselves to be so described, who are not in that office or may be false expressions of it. THE PROPHETIC CALLArt Katz

The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, “has almost always been that of recovery.” He lives in “splendid isolation.” He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright. His message is “repent, be reconciled to God or else...!” His prophecies are parried. His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void. He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow. He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead! TRUE PROPHETSBy LEONARD RAVENHILL

He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with epitaphs when dead. He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few “make the grade” in his class. He is friendless while living and famous when dead. He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a saint by posterity. He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the Bread of Life to those who listen. He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years. He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation. He announces, pronounces, and denounces! TRUE PROPHETSBy LEONARD RAVENHILL

The most formidable character of deception in the last days is not going to be something so bizarre that it can be instantly identified as being out of the bowels of Hell, but rather it is going to be couched in the most conventional, orthodox and biblical language. The persecution of the remnant church of the last days is not so much the threat that comes to us from the world, but from a religious dimension that think that they are doing God a service. It will be more difficult to discern the good than the evil. Evil is apparent, but good is subtle. Good has much going for it and much to commend it, but if the good is not from God and just emanates from a kind of altruistic, humanistic personality, then good will be just as destructive to the interests of God as evil. That which appears as good will keep us from the particular and perfect will of God, and it is, therefore, more deadly than evil as it is not recognized as evil, because it purports to be good. How, therefore, will we discern? We have got to hate that which is good—the false good; that which purports to be good; that which appears to be good; that which will appeal humanistically to us as being nice, pleasant or right. We need to hate good in that sense, to hate sentimentality and to hate that which gives a nice feeling. The false prophet is the one who says, ”Peace, peace, where there is no peace.” He ‘makes nice’, and which of us does not like ‘nice’ and to be ‘made nice’. There is something that yearns for it, and therefore they have a ready market, large audiences, great responses and mass mailing lists, because we want that which is nice, good and pleasant to the ear. There are two parallel tracks, the fictitious and assumed, presumptuous nonsense of men and the authentic thing, now in process of restoration from God. One will flatter you and make nice with entreaties to your flesh and the other will call you to the cross, and by that you can know who are the true prophets and the false.THE PROPHETIC CALLArt Katz

I was looking for something like these statements below. Thanks Sweden.

What is a prophet if he is not jealous of the Word of the Lord?Art Katz

A prophet is a man occupied with things foundational. He is a man pursuing absolutes, even the Absolute. His God is God, the Father, God, the Creator, God, the covenant maker, God, the covenant keeper. His basic message is anchored in the attributes of God. Light - no change. Holiness - no room for compromise. Righteousness - law and redemption. Love - ability to protect what belongs to Him. The prophet brings good news causing conviction and conversion.The prophet is a man of foundations, Eph 2:20. He brings words which are already tested and refined. His words invite the Refiners fire. A prophet’s words invite testing, demand testing for the sake of truth and for the sake of effective response. His words do not tickle an ear but produce inner growth. The listener needs to adjust and respond properly. Hearts of stone or hearts full of weed will not be able to blame the word for not producing fruit.L. WiderbergA Prophet's work

The corporate work of a church is to strip anyone in reach of his illusions and to bring forth truth and reality.L. Widerberg

He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire. He talks to men about God. He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men. He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing. He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in the marketplace. He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual. He has passion, purpose and pugnacity. He is ordained of God but disdained by men.TRUE PROPHETSBy LEONARD RAVENHILL

GOD’S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH. They will come. The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is vindicated by history. There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible earnestness. The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable. Let him be as plain as John the Baptist. Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern theology and stagnant “churchianity.” Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle. Let him, too, say and live, “This ONE thing I do.” Let him reject ecclesiastical favors. Let him be self-abasing, nonself-seeking, nonself-projecting, nonself- righteous, nonself-glorying, nonself-promoting. Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that which will move men to God. Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place where he has received the order of the day. Let him, under God, unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf through the clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism. Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has seen a vision no man in this century has seen. God send us this Moses to lead us from the wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing Armageddon. God have mercy! Send us PROPHETS!TRUE PROPHETSBy LEONARD RAVENHILL

Prophets are sent, holding a heavenly mandate, to protect people. The prophet is sent to correct the people. The properly conducted prophetic ministry provokes those who are strong and who live securely to cover and to serve the weak.A prophet, a real prophet is brought up and then brought forth into the arena of man’s struggle to be concerned, to be bothered. A man, even worse, a prophet who does not care about the pain of the poor and needy causes the heaviest burden to be machinated and prepared for the Father’s heart to carry.A Samuel’s attitude is spelled out thus: ”As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. I will instruct you in the good and right way.” 1 Sam 12:23. Jeremiah reaches out for more tears: ”Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.” Jer 9:1.L. Widerberg

"I would counsel you, first of all, to be a Christian. Do not spend too much time focused on that which is prophetic. Do not come to others as a prophet, but as a child. Let Christ be your obsession, not the prophetic word. For "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." There need not be turmoil in your heart about your calling; it is clear that you are among those that are "the Called, according to His purpose." And what is His purpose? That you be "conformed to the image of His dear Son." That, above all, is your first calling. Many are eager to wear the Prophet's mantle, but are reluctant to bear the Christian's cross. This cannot be. Given the choice between Christian or Prophet, choose Christian. Serve God as the earthen vessel you are, in the place you find yourself to be. Perhaps the Lord will indeed use you in some prophetic way, but if not then at least you have been faithful with the "one talent" you have been given. God will not give five talents to those who cannot be faithful with one, and will not give ten to those who cannot be faithful with five. Do you see dear friend, that God is more concerned with the messenger than the message? Do you see that the minister is more important than the ministry? If the messenger is wrong, the message will be wrong too. If the minister is wrong, the ministry will be wrong. And do you see that the Lord of the work is more important than the work of the Lord?"~Chip Brogdenwatchman.net